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Timeline Editing

The timeline is where your edit lives. Tracks stack from bottom to top, clips sit on those tracks, and the playhead marks the frame you are looking at. This page covers the everyday moves: adding clips, cutting them, closing gaps, marking ranges, and working with more than one timeline.

Tracks

  • Video tracks hold everything you see: video, images, text, shapes, captions, and adjustment layers. Higher tracks render over lower ones.
  • Audio tracks hold audio clips and the sound that came with a video file.
  • Add more room with Add Video Track or Add Audio Track.
  • Each track header has Lock, Solo, Enable/Disable (visibility), and sync lock.

Track groups are one level deep and act as headers. Mute, visibility, and lock flow from a group down to the tracks inside it.

Add and arrange clips

  • Drag a clip from the Media panel onto a video or audio track.
  • Use the Selection tool (V) to move and rearrange clips.
  • Linked selection keeps a video clip and its audio moving together. Unlink them when you need to edit one alone.
  • Nudge a selected item with Shift+Arrow (1px) or Ctrl+Shift+Arrow (10px).

Split, join, and delete

  • Split at the playhead with Alt+C, or use the Razor tool (C) to cut wherever you click.
  • Join two adjacent parts of the same clip with Shift+J.
  • Delete leaves a gap. Ripple Delete (Ctrl+Delete) removes the clip and closes the gap.
  • Close All Gaps pulls the clips on a track together and removes the empty space.

Snapping, markers, and ranges

  • Toggle snapping with S so clips snap to nearby cuts, markers, and the playhead.
  • Drop a marker with M for a note or a timing reference, and jump between markers with [ and ].
  • Set an in point (I) and an out point (O) to mark a range for preview and export. Clear the range with Alt+X.

Several timelines in one project

A sequence is a self-contained timeline with its own tracks, clips, markers, and in/out range. The tab bar above the timeline lists the Main timeline plus every sequence you have made. Click a tab to switch which one you are editing.

  • Create a sequence with the + button at the end of the tab bar. It opens as its own tab.
  • Double-click a tab to rename it. The tab options menu (⋮) has Rename, Close tab, and Delete sequence.
  • Close tab only hides the tab. The sequence stays in the Media panel and in any clip that references it. Delete sequence removes it entirely, along with the clips that reference it, and can be undone.
  • Drop a sequence onto the timeline to nest it as a clip (labelled Sequence). Double-click that clip to jump to its tab.
  • A compound clip can be opened as a sequence tab: right-click it in the Media panel and choose Open as tab.

Each sequence keeps its own markers, in/out range, view, and undo history, so switching tabs never mixes them up.

Zoom and undo

  • Zoom with Ctrl+= and Ctrl+-, fit the whole edit with \, and return to 100% with Shift+\.
  • Zoom only changes the view. It never changes clip timing.
  • Undo with Ctrl+Z and redo with Ctrl+Shift+Z. How many steps are kept is set in Settings, see Editor Settings.
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